Fatwa ID: 02850

Answered by:  Maulana Muhammad Afzal Hussain

Question:

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah

My question is about conditional divorce uttered by a husband in a special incident. A wife was accusing her husband of being neglectful to their daughter and not paying attention when the wife told him about a sickness of the child. But the husband got furious and said the wife was ungrateful. The wife, being angry, said to the husband, "My baby is suffering because of you." The husband got offended and said, "Why are you saying "my baby"? You will say "our baby".

But the wife adamantly said, "I will say my baby 100 times. What will you do?" The husband got mad and said, "You are gonna say it a 100 times? If you say "my baby" again, you will be divorced. Divorce will happen as many times as you say it." The wife became shocked and did not say it again.

Now the husband explains that he meant saying that "my baby" in a context of anger and disobedience to her husband. He did not mean generally saying it because the words themselves are not bad. He says he most probably meant only that incident to prevent his wife from saying it again.

Afterwards, they reconciled and also got a fatwa from their local Imam that talaq would not happen if the wife says "my baby" again because the husband did not intend divorce. After this, the wife said my baby many times. Now the husband is confident that they are still married but the wife is having doubts and wasawasa. What is the solution?

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم

                 In the name of ALLAH the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

The point in the above case is that the husband said, “If you say "my baby" again, you will be divorced.” The key word here is “you will be”. This denotes future progressive tense that constitutes a mere promise or threat of a future state of being and therefore does not affect the divorce. To be in this state, divorce needed to be given. Imam Kasani Said "The ruling of divorce said in future tense is that divorce does not occur." [See: Badai-us-Sanai’, Chapter: Divorce]

Only Allah Knows Best

Answered by Maulana Muhammad Afzal Hussain

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham